Fear not, Baby A!

Who is afraid of the big bad vacuum cleaner? Today we discovered that Baby A is!!! Poor little peanut...




This was quite a surprise for us. At one point she was so scared that she was actually shaking!!! D tried to show her that it's nothing to be afraid of and eventually she was able to calm down and feel okay around it...


Did she overcome her fear? We feel like she did at least a little bit! Perhaps next time she won't get scared but instead will try to climb on top of it and ride it.

Accidental portraiture

Too often Baby A's sweetest moments happen when I least expect them. Luckily, I had my camera in hand for this one...


In case you are wondering, she's wearing a customized onesie printed with the phrase "Is butter a carb?" The saying is a quote from a movie and a running inside joke with one of my best friends. I've got a nice wardrobe of customized clothing printed with personal jokes like this one and my good friend thought that a personalized onesie would be the perfect way to introduce Baby A to wonder of personalization.

Meemie

My Meemie passed away last week. This picture was taken of us almost five years ago.


She was in her mid-80s and was quite the little pistol of a lady. She always had the best and most entertaining stories and she rarely to never used her oven and would keep pots and pans or boxes of cereal in it instead.

When I was little and would go out to eat with her, she never fussed at me for wanting to eat only side dishes for my meal - green beans, mashed potatoes (NO gravy!), and applesauce. She also got me the nicest dolls every year for Christmas that always ended up being my favorites and then when I was older, she got me purses that I always loved and would give me matching wallets with a dollar already in them for "luck."

Once I was old enough to be out of the house and off on my own, I would visit her and spend afternoons with her chit-chatting about life and memories and we would always end up in her guest bedroom turned storage room where she would try to load me down with polyester jacket and pants suits that I "could wear to work." One time she gave me a pack of underwear that she happened to have extra and that she swore up and down would be the most comfortable underwear I would ever own.

She always appreciated getting new slippers for Christmas - favoring the Dearfoam or Isotoner brands most - and once I got her this sculptured flower out of the most delicate ceramic that I have ever seen and when she opened up she said, "Id'nt that PUR-tay!" the way she always did when she really liked something a lot!

She was a really great lady. I took as many of my friends to meet her as I could and always tried to stop by to see her if I were in town or make as many special trips just to see her as I could. There is no disputing how popular she was with people who made her acquaintance proving how much of a character she was!

Meemie was such a neat lady. She absolutely was. There really was absolutely no one like her.

Nine is so very fine

Today is Baby A's nine month milestone. I can hardly believe it!!! Last evening I would not keep quiet about the fact that she's basically been born for as long as I was pregnant with her. D humored me enough with conversation but perhaps if he had carried her for nine months it would be a little more a big deal to him. Check out this progression of pictures. It takes you from when she was in utero, to when she was first born, to when she was just a couple of hours old, and then through to every month up until now...
Isn't it amazing how much she has changed??? This assortment of pictures is a screenshot from the first page of a book that I am writing for Baby A. See the three empty spaces toward the end? That's where her 10 month, 11 month, and year pictures will go. That means I've got only three more months and the book (and the progression of pictures!) will be DONE!!! So hard to believe! Time has just flown by.

Anyway, Baby as is obviously getting SO big. In actuality she is still a little small for her age as everyone seems to be passing her by but she is officially in 9 month size clothing and it's just about impossible to even squeeze her into anything smaller. Her legs have definitely gotten longer and she is definitely putting beefing up with her very healthy appetite. She still enjoys guacamole but she's also discovered yogurt - YoBaby and Greek, cottage cheese, and fig spread! Pretty much any time I sit down by her and eat something, she makes it VERY clear that she wants to sample it as well! As yet, there isn't one thing that she won't eat.

The other thing that has changed of her is her hair is getting so long!!! The other night in the bathtub I slicked it up into a cute little mohawk. But even with such a "punk" look, she still looked as sweet as ever.Don't you just love her chubbiness? She rarely escapes getting smothered with kisses on those chunky cheeks of hers.

Showered and babied

[I am so long overdue with this post! But it has been on my list of things that needed to be attended to ASAP so here it finally is!!! Sorry for the delay everyone!]

Two weekends ago we ventured up to Pittsburgh for a lovely weekend of all kinds of fun! Too often we find ourselves rushing through the weekend with not enough time to spend with everyone up there so D and I both took time off from work so that we could really kick back and enjoy ourselves.

The biggest thing of the weekend was D's sister (Aunt H to Baby A) baby shower!!!! She is expecting a little baby boy at the beginning of April and everyone is all excited to make his acquaintance. The shower was not a surprise and everyone had a wonderful (and delicious!) time at the AYCE Mongolian buffet.





Grammy and Grandpap outdid themselves AGAIN by creating the most adorable theme of all things fish related...


Can you believe the attention to detail??? It was all a big hit with the guests and I continue to believe that Grammy and Grandpap could go into business for themselves doing some kind of specialty party planning!

Anyway, if there was anything that could top all of the aforementioned, it was the great time that we had watching Aunt H make her way through the fun, adorable, and clever gifts that she got...


Aunt H was seriously excited to get the gift from her best friend K. She actually already knew what it was and the story of how it ended up being like that was quite entertaining! If that's not the NICEST diaper bag you have ever seen than I don't know what is!


And there were tons and TONS of baby clothes but one of Aunt H's friend was so clever and pinned them all onto a clothes with real clothese pins! So adorable!!! I might just have to steal this idea for the next shower that I go to!


The grand finale gifts were from Grammy and Grandpap. Aunt H could barely contain herself when she opened it and saw what it was.

Can you guess what it is??? Take a guess and then scroll down for the big reveal...

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IT's a BABY-sized water safety vest!!! And BOY was it snazzy!!! Baby D is going to look sharp out there in the boat come time for fly fishing season!


Aunt H and Uncle J do a lot of outdoorsy stuff so Grammy and Grandpap found the PERFECT sized tent for Baby D. It even had it's own blow up mattress!!! Talk about five star wilderness accomodations!

And then it was finally time to cut into the cake which was so bittersweet because of how beautiful it looked but it tasted SO delicious! I can see why Aunt H enjoyed getting it cut and served up! One of her in-laws made it for her and Aunt H KNEW that we were all in for something yummy because she had already experienced a sampling of the confections at her weddings a couple of years back!

I love this photo of Aunt H and Grammy. You can SO tell that they are mother and daughter. Just look at how they are standing! I absolutely did NOT pose them like this!


Everyone had such a terrific time. Toward the end, the men showed up and got in on some of the pictures. Who says ladies are the only ones who can enjoy a baby shower? Grandpap was all about stealing Baby A away from all of the ladies.